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McDonald's Tries to Convince Moms That its Food is Nutritious

McDonald'sIn an effort to convince consumers that its food is nutritious, McDonald's is letting a group of six mothers, aged 35 to 42, go behind-the-scenes at McDonald's restaurants, processing plants, orchards and test kitchens.

The mothers will share their experiences with the world via online journals.

McDonald's says that it will have no control over what the women write. The women are not being paid, but McDonald's is paying for their travel and they have been given laptop computers that they will be allowed to keep.

McDonald's is calling the program Mom's Quality Correspondents. The six mothers were picked from a group of 4,000 applicants.

Currently, only 48 percent of women believe that McDonald's food quality is "excellent" or "very good", according to a survey of 14,000 women.



USAToday.com June 12, 2007


Dr. Mercola's Comment:

McDonald's, of course, is banking on the fact that these moms, hand-picked from a pool of thousands of applicants, will help give them a more family-friendly, "mom-approved" reputation amid growing claims that fast-food giants are contributing to obesity and a host of other diet-related health problems across the country.

Frankly, it's shocking to me that even 48 percent of women associate McDonald's with "quality food."

Only this year did McDonald's finally start to remove trans-fat from some of their French fries (and many of their fries still contain it), and their menu is full of non-nutritional "fake foods." Just check out the movie SuperSize Me if you want to know how this food affects your body.

I am fond of telling patients that one French fry is worse for your health than one cigarette, so you may want to consider this snippet before you order your next 'Biggie' order. One of the best things that you can do for yourself and your family is to stay away from fast food restaurants, and carve out some time to prepare healthy food.

If you want to get or stay healthy, someone is just simply going to have to spend some serious time in the kitchen. The time you save by eating at fast food restaurants is not worth the future health complications it could cause.

Please avoid exchanging convenience for your health. Your health is far too precious to lose for a few moments of free time. If you think that you truly don't have the time to do this, take a look at my past article:

Six Easy Ways to Get Better Nutrition Even if You Don't Have the Time.

It will be interesting to see what the moms report. Keep in mind that their journals are being posted on a McDonald's-run Web site, and that there is a strong likelihood that they will be seeing precisely what McDonald's wants them to see. As this Slashfood post points out, this really is a pretty transparent ploy by McDonald's -- there is no doubt that the response will be rave reviews about the quality of McDonald's products, even though any teenager actually working at McDonald's could tell you otherwise.

The Slashfood post goes on to wish that McDonald's would just admit what they really are and stop trying to fool everyone into believing that, against all logic and evidence, it's a healthy place to eat. I couldn't agree more.

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Comment on This Article Community Comments (67)
 
 
Posted On Jun 14, 2007
Pure SPIN and PR stunt.

How are 6 moms going to know anything, other than the party line they are fed, with impressive facilities, dog and pony shows and production plants about what they are seeing, hearing, or tasting and whether or not it is harmful or good?

Tell you what Ronald McDonald, how about just sending each of the Mom's a DVD of 'SUPER SIZE ME'.

 
Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
Replied

Laserman
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
Laserman  
 
Posted On Jun 14, 2007
Let's see, 6 moms, picked from 4000 applicants, each must be at least an occasional customer, and the journals are to be posted on a Mickey D website. What the downside risk for McDonald's?


KathieJamisonCote
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
KathieJamisonCote  
 
Posted On Jun 23, 2007
Great idea Russ - I offer my copy of "Super Size Me" for one of those mothers to view...............I wonder if she'd get it?


 
 
 
Posted On Jun 15, 2007
McDonald's should be renamed: McDEATH!

Faux "food":  Just a mix of chemicals made to taste like food.

All fast "food" makes me nauseous.  For a healthy snack make it a habit to carry the CocoCassava Bars with you, if your hungry while on the run.

 
helpingheart
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 6/2006
helpingheart  
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Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
 
Posted On Jun 16, 2007
McDeath (R) is no doubt a registered trade mark of McDonald's Corporation for their alternate profit center, the 'McFuneral & McBurial(R)' division(s).

 
 
 
Posted On Jun 16, 2007
You can't heal, what you can't feel. These moms and their kids of course eat McD's food. So they are blinded by the fact that it is unhealthy. It is kind of like a heroin addict talking about heroin and thinking that it is not ruining their life. At the same time I am not surprised. If you are eating this crap food, your body is supplied and built with crap. So when it comes to functioning and thinking clearly, that will be inhibited.

 
Josh Rubin
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 6/2006
Josh Rubin  
 
 
 
Posted On Jun 16, 2007
Maybe this whole thing is to see if their advertising campaign is working...

There's an advertisement on during the day where a little girl is playing dress up and her mother takes her to McDonald's for lunch with the girl in her fabulous'y creative outfit. The tagline is something like "Because what's on the tummy isn't as important as what's in the tummy."

The average mom is not an expert on nutrition, and what's really sad is that given all the mixed messages out there, it's hard for the average person to decide what's right. When my mother first started gettin gher certification as a nutritionist, she would call me up and tell me all sorts of things that sounded absolutely ludicrous - that soy was bad for me, and that saturated fat was OK.

I admit, I didn't believe her, but I cared enough to actually look up the information, and when I went and read actual studies, I found that she was right. But it's not easy for the average person on the street to be able to find, read, and understand the actual scientific evidence. I'm very grateful to Dr. Mercola for his website and newsletter. I research a lot of the articles that I find here.

:)

 
Maj_203
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 3/2007
Maj_203  
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Reesacat
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 1/2007
Reesacat  
 
Posted On Jun 16, 2007
That makes two of us!  And I know alot of regulars to this site depend on
it for current, accurate, and usable information.

Thank you, Dr. Mercola!


C Ed Wright
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2007
C Ed Wright  
 
Posted On Jul 09, 2007
Moms were right about a lot of things -- microwave ovens, for instance.  Didn't cook right, didn't taste right, didn't "brown the food" right (read: not at all); "maybe we'll find out some day that it does something to the food..."  Ya think!?!?!?  FYI the Russians figured this out during development of their own radar technology, banned MW ovens by 1976 and issued an urgent warning to the rest of the world that cooking with radar wavelength EM radiation actually toxified the food.  Did we listen?  Uh, do pigs fly...?  Say, boys and girls, can you say, "profit-deafness...?"

 
 
 
Posted On Jun 17, 2007
Dr. Toby Cosgrove, Chief Executive for the Clevland Clinic and renowned heart surgeon has been trying to get McDonalds restaurants, along with other heart unhealthy fast food restaurants, out of it's hospital  since 2004. Pizza Hut left immediately, but McDonalds is holding fast to it's remaining 10 years (now 7) of it's lease.

Dr. Cosgrove has been criticized by even health care employees for his efforts. In spite of this,  there are many who agree that it is ironic that a hospital  known around the world for it's excellence in heart care would support artery clogging foods such as McDonalds. 
 
McDonalds is still there, but I fully support Dr. Cosgroves efforts to rid the Clevland Clinic of fast food places that contribute to the very same unhealthy hearts that they are trying to repair!

 
minnie-me
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 2/2007
minnie-me  
Replied

C Ed Wright
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2007
C Ed Wright  
 
Posted On Jul 09, 2007
It's not only ironic, but gives the appearance of utter hypocrisy.  Other than appearances, however, the presence or absence of one isolated individual little cesspool in a vast network of tens of thousands of similar cesspools is almost a non-issue.

McDeadly's has had ample warning and ample opportunity to clean up its act, yet they persist.  The principle once was, abuse it, you lose it.  So I think we all agree they should ALL be summarily shut down permanently.  So why hasn't this been done?

Simple:  Out-of-business means zero profit; zero profit means zero dividends; zero dividends means VERY UNHAPPY investors; very unhappy investors become very unhappy voters; very unhappy voters just might vote out of office anyone with the balls to shut down the greatest health menace the world has ever, well, tolerated for so long.

There is another remedy, however:  Let the prosecutions begin!  (When pigs fly even higher than McDeadly's friends-in-high-places.)

 
 
 
 
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